Missing: Zuma's soul

When Jacob Zuma said he had a bond, many clapped. We are still waiting to see a copy of his bond, but ANC delegates will not demand that he produce it.

The response of the president to the KPMG report ("Secret report reveals how millions flowed to Zuma", December 7) through Mac Maharaj was that "it's recycled information".
The ANC said Zuma's finances were private. If they were private, why did Nelson Mandela and senior leaders such as the Reverend Makhenkesi Stofile, ANC treasurer general Cheryl Carolus and Thabo Mbeki, then the ANC deputy president, discuss the "negative impact" of Zuma's relationship with Schabir Shaik on the image of the ANC?

A Stanger business took Zuma to court when he failed to service his "loan" and Shaik had to settle it. With Zuma swimming deep in debt, Shaik manipulated him and the ANC – but this is "private". Why then do Cabinet members, MPs, members of provincial legislatures and councillors have to declare their interests?

It is clear we have a president who lives far above his means. We now know why the Scorpions were dissolved and why Mbeki, the judiciary and the media were insulted. The ANC is led by a man who has lost his soul. – Thanduyise Mfeka

To me, Mangaung is a conference to reorganise the spiderweb of patronage. Patronage is a worldwide phenomenon, but in Europe, when patronage is dispersed to friends and acquaintances and they are rewarded with government business, the acquaintances do the job (and perfectly so). In Africa, when patronage is dispersed in this manner, the acquaintances will either be paid without having done the job, or for doing it incompletely or poorly. – Luthando Lukhozi, Centurion

The KPMG report gives the nation a clearer picture of our president's loose morals. It was a lie that there was a political conspiracy against him: he created his own problems.

Zweli Mkhize, the only senior ANC leader who testified for Shaik, is now a proposed ANC treasurer general. Shaik funded a R1million campaign for Mkhize to oust S'bu Ndebele as KwaZulu-Natal premier – this Shaik admitted in City Press.

Zuma and Mkhize did all they could to spread the falsehood that Mbeki was hatching a political conspiracy to prevent Zuma from becoming president. In KwaZulu-Natal, tribalism was used to demonise Mbeki, which led to him being heckled.

Those of us who stood firm against the heckling of Mbeki were castigated as "Xhosa kitchen boys" by leaders who supported Zuma. On June 16 2006, Ndebele had a bottle of urine thrown at him at the Princess Magogo Stadium. Mbeki's deputy president, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, had meetings disrupted by ANC hooligans in Utrecht. The South African Communist Party insinuated that Mbeki was a conspirator in the assassination of Chris Hani.

In order to hide information contained in the KPMG report and distract attention from it, Zuma and his allies have vulgarised debate and pushed populism.

Thanks to Mokotedi Mpshe, Zuma was let off the hook. Zuma should also thank the ignorant masses for supporting him. Clearly this comrade has erected his house on pillars of corruption. – Phillip Mhlongo